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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1899)
10 Conservative. The renders of CUUKI/TY . THE CONSEKVA- TO KARAX. TIVE have shud dered more over the cruelty to General Eagnn than over the degraded condition of the quicksilver in their thermometers during the last ton or twenty days. That prominent officer in the United States army said that his superior , Gen eral Miles , lied ; lied generally and lied particularly in every fibre and atom of his corporeal and incorporeal individual ity concerning "embalmed" beef for the mastication of the militant army or armies of the United States. And now General Eagan is sentenced to suspen sion from work , to be excused from duty for six years on five thousand dollars lars a year and whether Miles lied or did not lie see'ms a matter of small account. The Chicago Record has a splendid correspondent in Washington , William E. Curtis , and in his letter of the 8th instant , published in The Record of the 9th , concerning Eagan's suffering , Mr. Curtis thus remarks : "Leaving the disgrace and humilia tion out of sight , many an officer in the army or the navy would be glad to re ceive the sentence that was passed upon General Eagan. In fact , nine-tenths of the population of the earth would grab at his situation if they could get it , speaking from a financial point of view. While it is true that ho is permanently dishonored , and will bear the badge of disgrace the remainder of his life , his financial condition is assured to a de gree beyond that of any other officer of the army or navy , and it furnishes some striking contrasts. General Eagan will draw from the treasury of the United States during the next six years while ho is under suspension a salary of $ .j,500 a year , without being called upon to perform any duty or bear any respon sibility. He will have his entire time to himself. He will be free to engage in business , and will probably go to California , where he has a ranch. He was born on the Pacific coast , where his family still resides , and has spent most of his life there. His pay will bo suffi cient to support him in comfort and lux ury. By the operation of his sentence ho loses his allowance for quarters , for age , fuel and other things that are fur nished free to army officers by the gov ernment , but ho will not need them. "Captain Clark of the Oregon , while awaiting orders at his old home in Mich igan , received § 100 less than one-half of the pay of General Eagan , or $2,700 a year. ' Having recovered his health , lie is to bo assigned to shore duty , and his pajr with all his honors will be § 3,500 a year , or $2,000 less than Eagan draws in disgrace. "Commodore * Phillipwhom everybody knows , is now commanding at the Brooklyn navy yard , where his respon sibility and cares and labors are very great. Ho will receive a salary of $4,000 a year , or $1,500 less than Eagau. If he should go on waiting orders or take a leave of absence or bo relieved from duty he would receive only $3,000. "Admiral Dewey at Manila is paid $500 more than Eagan while ho is in com mand of the Asiatic squadron. When ho comes home at the end of his cruise and is assigned to shore duty he will be paid $500 less than Eagau , and while he is awaiting orders or on leave of ab sence ho will bo entitled to $1,500 less. "Admiral Schley is now in Washing ton awaiting orders. It is proposed to organize a fleet for him and send liiin to Europe in command of it as soon ns matters settle down in the Philippines and West Indies , but until then , accord ing to the iniles of the service , he is 'waiting orders' and is entitled to pay at the rate of $4,000 a year , or two- thirds of what he would receive while at sea. He is therefore drawing $1,500 less than General Eagau. " Over $500,000 will be spent during 1899 by the Burlington road in improve ments to its track , road-bed and bridges west of the Missouri river. Of this amount over $200,000 will be put into new iron bridges. One hundred and miles of rails will fifty 75-pound re place lighter rails , and over 1,000,000 now ties will be put in. A SOLIJJ \\AIjJ. , . Some _ _ _ weeks . . _ ago . E. O. Wall of Wis consin renounced the sixteen-to-oue delusions of the advocates of the free and unlimited coinage of silver by the United States government single-handed and alone. Since his declaration of financial sanity Mr. Wall has been pelted with letters and editorials denunciatory , defamatory and generally deprecatory. These missives and 'missiles have been shot at Mr. Wall with unceasing valor from behind all the fortifications of Coin Harvey and the entrenched assets of the Arkansas Jones democracy , the Ne braska Allen populism , and the Colorado Teller republicanism. And at last , after a bombardment of weeks duration , Mr. Wall has replied. He says , in the be ginning of his epistle to the sixteenites : "From the tone of many letters I have received and newspaper comments that have been brought to niy attention , it seems some people are so fanatical on the silver question that to doubt the wisdom , propriety or expediency of retaining in the next national platform the declaration of 16 to 1 is regarded as disloyal , and that whosoever expresses such a doubt must bo read out of the democratic party and seek an asylum with the republicans or the gold demo crats. For ono I do not propose to bo read out of the democratic party , and I shall not join the republican party nor cast my lot with the gold doniocrats. I propose to stay on the democratic ship , and I challenge the right and deny the power of any man or set of men to throw ino overboard. There I will remain and for the principles that I believe to bo democratic I will lift up my voice , and if I am overridden by a majority of my fellow democrats I can acquiesce , but claim the right to retire from active par ticipation in promulgating views that I regard as undemocratic , unwise , un businesslike and inexpedient. " Farther along in his wholesome and instructive communication to the money fallacy promoters , after recalling the emotional and paroxysmal convention of alleged democracy which met at Chicago in 1896 , Mr. Wall forcibly and correctly remarks : "It is not so much a question of what the standard of value shall bo as of what the standard of value is. It is established irrevocably by commercial usages and the regular laws of trade , and cannot and will not bo controlled by legislation contrary to those great laws. Business could probably be done just as well with silver as with gold as the standard of value , if it were accepted by all the business world. But it is not , and any attempt made by legislation to force trade and commerce to a standard that is not universally recognized will create endless trouble , annoyance and loss to the masses , and after all , if a now basis were accepted and quiet restored , it would be found that the masses had not become the gainers , and the control of money as. firmly centralized under the new system as under the old. Between those who worship the golden calf and those who worship the silver calf there is little choice , except that the former idol is looked upon with inoro favor by the greater mass of the people than the latter , and hence exerts a larger influence. Believing that while the democratic party retains the silver issue as an article of faith it will not retain the con fidence of her people and be placed in control of the government , I shall do my best to prevent it. " A1JOUT A AVEBSTEKIAN .ORATION. It has been said by some persons in the world that "there can never be but ono Webster" in our country. The be nighted persons who talk thus predicate the melancholy refrain upon the fact that the God-like Daniel was the greatest or ator since Demosthenes chewed pebbles. There is one man , at least , now living who is convinced that there is another Webster who can match the original marvel as an orator , if he can only get a hearing. He carries an oration around with him in his trousers' pocket , fires it at looking-glasses , rehearses it in solilo quies , sleeps with it in his little bed and expects to snort it at the senate if he lives to the allotted ago of man. It is hardly necessary to say that the subject of this Webstorian oration is Expansion , with a big E.
